Squash the bug

There has been somewhat of a revolution in hitting instruction in the last ten years. With the abundance of MLB video available, many (many) people have taken it upon themselves to become experts at hitting. One result of this movement is a change in the way hitting is taught. A lot of the old teachings have now become labeled “wrong” or even “detrimental” to hitters’ success. I would like to spend some time revisiting the old teaching cues and see what gives. Let’s start with a very popular one: squash the bug. Do a quick Google search of “squash the bug” and you will find that pretty much every hitting guru says that cueing hitters to “squash the bug” is not a good idea. Instructors will point out hitters at contact on show that indeed their rear foot is up on the toe or entirely off the ground, like Jose Bautista below.

Well! That settles it. You can’t squish a bug if your foot is in the air, that’s for sure. But Bautista’s foot wasn’t always in the air. How did it get that way? Maybe we should look some more. Before we dismiss the cue as detrimental, maybe we should try to provide some context. Let’s rewind the Bautista clip a bit. Here is Bautista starting his swing. Imagine a bug under his big toe of his rear foot.

Hmm. The bug sure wouldn’t be very happy. In fact, I bet it would get squashed! How about Bryce Harper – another guy who at contact has his rear foot in the air.

I wouldn’t want to be a bug under his rear foot. One more. Here is Evan Longaria. Let’s see what his rear foot does.

So what gives? Do hitters squash the bug? Well, yeah. Kinda. Earlier in the swing hitters’ rear hip function causes the foot to give the appearance of squishing the bug. That’s what Dusty Baker meant when he popularized the term in his book (by the way, Baker probably knows a thing or two about hitting with nearly 2000 career hits). The cue just needs context. It isn’t meant to mean for contact, just like “release the top hand” isn’t a good cue for stance. So can squash the bug be a good teach? Absolutely. Just like anything else, it must be used correctly.